HELP! Auto Import Many Excel Docs

[Jeff M]

I could really use some help! I'm in a crunch and need a solution fast. Any Applescript FileMaker gurus out there?

My client sends me (usually weekly) batches of excel documents... hundreds of them. I've created import scripts and parsing scripts to get the data from the excel document into FileMaker, but I need a solid way of batching the import process. Below I'll explain what I currently have, but it's very clunky and errors out quite often, so I could really use some guidance. I can look at applescripts and for the most part understand what they are doing, but I'm no scripter.

Basic need: Trigger import process in which one at a time, the excel documents are imported into my database and a few additional scripts are run internally. The excel documents come to me as .xlsm files, which FileMaker doesn't like. To overcome this, I change the name to .xls before importing.

 

Here's what I currently have:

An applescript app called "Auto-Import" I startup when I'm ready to import a batch. It looks at an IN folder. One by one, it moves the files to a WORKING folder, changes the name, then calls on FileMaker to do a script. FileMaker is set to look for a static file named "importme.xls" in the WORKING folder. It imports, then runs a couple of parsing scripts. After a short delay, the Applescript app changes the filename back to its original name, then moves it to the DONE folder, after which it moves to the next item in the list from the IN folder.

I found this applescript somewhere and changed the paths and delay amounts until I got it to work...sort of. As you can imagine, I get lots of errors from FileMaker or Applescript trying to move on a do something before the other has finished. Boo.

Seems like the better way would be to have applescript code within the FileMaker scripts, so everything is controlled by FileMaker. I'm open to any and all suggestions. Or if you know of something similar, point me to it. Please help!

 

Jeff

 

 

[comment]

I would suggest you look at the BaseElements plugin:
http://www.goya.com.au/baseelements/plugin